


sliver of pie

by drinkofwourder



Category: Bon Appétit Test Kitchen RPF, Chef RPF
Genre: Confessions, Denial of Feelings, F/M, First Kiss, Pie, SO MUCH PIE, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 06:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21424033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drinkofwourder/pseuds/drinkofwourder
Summary: he couldn't deny his feelings any longeror how brad thought he might've lost it all in denver
Relationships: Brad Leone/Claire Saffitz
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50





	sliver of pie

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this one pretty quickly! After seeing the pie video, I just started writing and couldn't stop until this one was done. 
> 
> The other part of that Fae fic is coming soon, but this one definitely took precedence. 
> 
> I'm trying something new and not locking this one for the first week, but RPF rules definitely still apply.
> 
> Enjoy!

It was probably just his imagination. It had to be, a girl like Claire would never be into a guy like him. She was too smart, too clever, she’d probably get tired of having to explain things to him all the time. Brad knew his worth, knew that he was good in the kitchen, but Claire was on an entirely different level.

He didn’t even think that the whole “league” bullshit was true until he met her, until he realized that Claire was incredibly, irrevocably out of his league.

...Especially when he could hardly pronounce “irrevocably”, his own brain getting in the way of his thoughts. 

Brad tried to stay cheerful, tried to ignore the way his heart was trying to convince him that Claire did like him, because he knew that acknowledging it was the fastest way to crush himself to pieces.

So he didn’t see the way Claire looked at him, because Claire didn’t look at him in that kinda way. Any affection he saw was just friendly, nothing more. It was pretty easy to ignore everything anyway, they hadn’t been working together as much, not since the sourdough donuts and Vidcon. Brad hadn’t been exactly trying to keep his distance, but he busied himself and hoped that she didn’t notice that he hadn’t been stopping by her station as much, mostly kept to himself when she was doing Gourmet Makes.

But Making Perfect Pizza had done well, and everyone was hard at work on Thanksgiving recipes anyway. So Making Perfect Thanksgiving had been pitched, and that meant pies and that excited look in Claire’s eyes that he just couldn’t resist. 

And, so, they were going to be making pies together. Not a big deal, he could handle it. Turn the charm on for the camera, do that gentle half-flirting thing that he couldn’t stop himself from doing until it went a step too far. After all, it was just going to be them in the kitchen for a few days, nothing more, just them and the pie dough.

At least, until they ended up on a plane to Denver in July. Them, their crew, and the pumpkin and half-sour cherry pies they had made together. The thought of a pie competition had made him a little nervous to be honest, but it all went away when he saw the cute way Claire’s nose pinched up when she was worried about something. After all, they couldn’t both be nervous, someone had to be there for her as an entire camera crew watched her try not to fall apart.

He tried to make the day a good one, hoped he succeeded as he saw her smiling and laughing while they ran around the fair together. Brad had tried to win her a toy but she destroyed him in all of the games, grinning wide and wild in a way that had his heart fucking skipping beats.

Christ, he was in too deep. 

They ended up losing the competition and a part of him wanted to draw her into his arms, wanted to comfort her. He ignored the idea that his brain put into his head, that she wanted to be comforted, that she wanted him to _touch_ her. Instead, he consoled her with words and they commiserated their loss together.

And he ignored the way that Hunzi side-eyed him from behind the camera the entire time, the way that he almost looked disappointed when they wrapped up filming. And he tried to ignore the feeling that he should’ve made some sort of move right then and there, and the feeling that she was slipping away from him as they boarded two separate flights.

Maybe he had missed his shot. That was the only thing that he could think of as Denver faded away and they took off in separate directions.

They weren’t apart for long. After all, they still had the rest of the Making Perfect shoot to finish. And he couldn’t help but feel that standing in her mom’s Cape Cod house was a little too intimate, even as Chris nudged his arm to try and get him to pay attention. All of the rest of the staff were there, but they all faded out into the background because Claire was there and he was never too good at focusing on multiple things. Especially not when it came to Claire, she was the only person he could see. 

He had trouble keeping his eyes off of her for the entire shoot, tried to force himself to look away. Especially after Hunzi had texted him to tell him that they were going to have to reframe some shots because of his “constant eye-fucking” of Claire, something that had him splashing water on his flushed face. Brad tried, he really did, but it was Claire and there wasn’t much he could do about her.

It was a terribly inconvenient thing to realize on a shoot in front of cameras and co-workers, and Claire herself. That he just couldn’t write it off anymore, that it was all trying to claw its way out of him in the form of an ill-timed, very public confession. The words a constant nuisance on the tip of his tongue, threatening to embarrass both of them.

But he managed to hold it together until they had wrapped shooting. They were all drinking on the patio to celebrate a successful show and all the hard work they had done to develop the recipes, and Brad needed another beer from the fridge. A part of him was also looking for Claire, she had been absent from the little afterparty and he found himself looking to the spot where she always stood next to him, found himself missing her even though she was just in another room.

Claire was in the kitchen because of course she was. He had been a little worried that she was cleaning the dishes, they had worked hard enough to put it off for now, instead she was pushing around a bite of their pumpkin pie in the dish. Brad joined her silently, grabbing a fork and stealing the bite right from her, trying to push her buttons a bit, trying to goad her into one of their half-arguments that often felt just like flirting.

Instead, she just looked at him like she really saw him, and that made him nervous in ways that a pie competition couldn’t. Because if she really saw him, would she like the version of him that was head over fucking heels for her, the version that was willing to act like a complete fool just to get her to smile? Or would she just see him as the fool who was trying to reach far out of his league just to have a small chance with a girl like her?

But maybe he just had to lay it all out on the line, maybe he just couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“Claire,” he started, breaking that awful silence between them, “I know you’re out of my league but I just...I just can’t do it anymore.”  
“What do you mean?” Claire asked and she sounded _scared_, he hated that.  
“There’s something between us, ‘cause there’s no way that we’re just regular ‘ole co-workers.”

She set down her fork in the pan with a noise that sounded far too loud, had him flinching in the face of what he was saying. But it was too late, he couldn’t just take it back, it was now or never. Even if a part of him wanted to leave a Brad-shaped hole in the door and go to live in the woods alone. 

“I like you Claire. Like a lot, you drive me crazy,” he said and it felt so strange to say it out loud, to finally admit it, “I...I just need to know if you’re into me too. If you’re not, I’ll just leave you alone and we won’t have to talk about it again-”  
“Brad.”  
“I mean, who am I kiddin’, a girl like you and a guy like me? Shit, I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry-” He was babbling and he knew it, knew he needed to shut up.  
“Brad.” She said and it was with such an urgency that his words got caught in his throat in a way that almost had him choking on them.

Claire almost looked amused and that had him flushing. She was going to turn him down, he just knew it and he so desperately hoped that she would make it short and sweet.

Her smile turned broad and she started laughing, and he started to leave the kitchen because he could deal with rejection but he couldn’t deal with her laughing him outta the room. But she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, guiding him to turn around.

“Brad.” She tried, again.  
“Claire…”  
“I...I feel the same way.”

And then she was up on her tip-toes, winding her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss that tasted like pumpkin pie and everything else he liked in life.

They lost the pie competition. Spectacularly, not even placing, not even best looking pie. But, in that kitchen after all their hard work, he kissed her back and felt like he won a hell of a lot more than just some dumb pie competition.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it, I'm moderating comments as usual, so just let me know if you don't want me to publish your comment.
> 
> You can find me on [ tumblr @drinkofwourder](https://drinkofwourder.tumblr.com/), come and talk to me about BradClaire!


End file.
